The barn identity

They don't build barns like they used to.

Modern barns are models of efficiency and technology. They score high in utilitarian function and design. They have their place, of course.

But old barns have character. They speak a silent, but no less eloquent, language of an earlier time, of an agrarian age of self-reliance and industry. They provide a window into the labor-intensive work of animal husbandry, crop production and family survival of decades past.

"I love old barns," said Elaine Thatcher, program director at the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies at the University of Utah and a driving force behind a new Bear River Heritage Area publication, "Historic Barns of Northern Utah: A Self-Guided Driving Tour."

Wooden barns are one of the defining characteristics of northern Utah landscape, Thatcher said. "Barns are such a key part of the land ethos, the agricultural heritage." And yet, they are slowly fading away, victims of time as well as circumstance.

Another thing she has realized about old barns is that "people value them. A lot of people say they love them. But they don't know much about the history or the architecture."

So, the purpose of the driving tour is not only to point out significant and aesthetically pleasing barns, but also to detail some of the background and history for each of the buildings.

The spiral-bound booklet that accompanies the tour includes driving instructions and stories for 11 structures in Box Elder County, 42 in Cache County and three in Rich County.

It is not meant to be a complete listing of all the barns in the region, but to represent various styles and highlight barns that are easily viewable from the roadside. Some of the barns are still in use. Most are on private property. That's why this is meant to be a driving tour, explained Thatcher. Anyone who wants to stop and visit the barns would need to get permission from the owners.

Most of the research for the project was done by Lisa Duskin-Goede (who answered an ad for an intern position and ended up using the material for her master's thesis). Duskin-Goede interviewed barn owners and other family members to get as much information about each barn as she could. It was an interesting process, she said. One thing she noticed was that "it raised their awareness of what they have. They liked the fact that other people were paying attention and appreciating their barn. In the end, that might help save some of these old barns. It might help motivate them to hang onto and keep up repairs on the barn."